Okuman is all about the fish: head, bones, fins and tail. And eyes and scales, and entrails too — that's what you get at Okuman.

Apologies, I have been overwhelmed by kids' songs lately. It was after eight on a weeknight when we dropped by Okuman and there wasn't a child in sight, possibly because it's a smoky, rough-and-ready kind of joint. That's not to say the service and hospitality aren't up to Japanese standards. They are. The master at the Okuman restaurant in Nakazakicho, a short walk northeast of Umeda, is about the hardest-working, most ceaselessly hospitable cook/waiter/boss I have seen in action in a while.

The "Kaisenyatai" part of the name translates roughly as "seafood stand." At heart it's a seafood izakaya, kitted out not unlike how you might imagine an easy-come, easy-go seafood restaurant straddling a pier, with the trawlers tied up for the night, while fishermen and locals sit around on crates eating the catch and drinking too much. The reality is different, but the seats are like crates and there are glass buoys dangling from the ceiling. And plenty of drinking.